Spaniard José Muñoz, formerly chief of Nissan Mexicana, was elevated to Chairman Nissan North America in the beginning of last year. He also is a member of Nissan’s executive committee, and the price of that glory is a 24 hour flight from Nashville to Tokyo, once a month. It’s that time of the month again, and Muñoz took the opportunity to brief Japanese reporters on his progress in America. Executive summary: All good. Munoz also brought two surprising statistics to the meeting, surprising at least for those who were not paying attention. [Continue Reading]

Today, Bidnessetc. writes that Nissan has “no reason to celebrate,” because the $7,500 tax credit, doled out by a generous Uncle Sam to buyers of electric cars, will expire for the Nissan Leaf as the car approaches its 200,000th cumulative sale. Being a site that dispenses investment advice, Bidnessetc deduces: “Hence, demand for the world’s best-selling EV might decline soon as there wouldn’t be any federal tax credits afterward to serve as incentives for prospective buyers.”

(Preface: I know, the Daily Kanban looks like a Tesla fanzine lately. Gomen nasai, but there’s just too much out there to be passed over.)

On October 27, 2014, the Wall Street Journal wrote that sales of Tesla’s Model S are “declining in its home market.” The Journal said that “through September, Tesla sold 10,335 Model S sedans in its home market, down 26% compared with the same period in 2013.” At Tesla, Musk disagreed.

In the rest of the auto business, an errant writer would have been ignored, for fear a reaction could create more waves. Or the reporter would get a phone call to set matters straight (I get those all the time.) Tesla is not like the rest of the auto business, therefore, the Wall Street Journal got an angry tweet from Elon Musk himself: [Continue Reading]

America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave embattled airbag company Takata a Tuesday night ultimatum to do a full-scale nationwide recall. No, said Takata, we’ll stick with our recall to humid regions. The company faces legal action and penalties from the NHTSA.

The Rule of Scarcity plays a large role in the persuasion process, as any pop psychologist can confirm. Nobody knows that better than master salesman Elon Musk. Waiting times for a Tesla are legend. If you believe the on-line chatter, the Model X is basically sold out for 2015. Is the scarcity for real? John Lovallo, a research analyst at Merrill Lynch, wanted to find out.

In the case of the Model X, Lovallo did not have to dig deep. The way it looks, there won’t be a Model X in 2015. As far as the Model S is concerned, Lovallo was told by Tesla that “essentially, in the third quarter, we sold every car that was. Including cars in, like, showrooms, and everything we basically had.” But then, Lovallo started going through the books, and he found that “Tesla’s finished goods inventory at the end of 3Q appears to tell a different story.” [Continue Reading]

Yesterday’s news that Daimler sold its 4 percent stake in Tesla weighed on the already beaten down stock of the electric carmaker. Daimler on the other hand is all smiles, having turned a $50 million initial investment into a cash flow of $780 million – not counting what it had received after selling a 40 percent chunk of its initial holdings to the Dubai government in 2009. Wall Street sources surmise that the sell was not a strategic decision, but the result of hedging. With the Tesla stock having retreated some 50 points from its September peak, options may have been exercised. According to a Daimler statement, the Stuttgart carmaker hasn’t simply cashed-in on its shares, but rather “has terminated the share-price hedge it initiated in 2013 and has sold its stake in Tesla of approximately 4%.”

Daimler isn’t the only high-profile investor that has lightened-up on TSLA stock.